'nids part 295 - Tyrannofex #Dreadtober week5 - TO DONE! Red pics

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer and as DreadTober came to an end my Tyrannofex appears to slipped into both #NidVember and #NomVember!

I made the hard slog to re-varnish where I could and fix any damage from the previous fiasco.

All three weapon options got painted to enjoy pics for all sets. But I think the Rupture Cannon is by far my favourite.

I'm glad I went with the lime green [thanks for the advice] it really stands out and draws the eye up.

Which I think if I'd gone a red glow would have left it a little more flat.

I love the Adrenal Glands, they work so well but you can definitely see that the red/yellow isn't quite as striking as the green.

A close-up of the Rupture Cannon.

And some 'desktop patterns'.

And closer...

And closer...!

Fleshborer Hives. OK, they are widely regarded as the least useful weapon.

My mate Otty loves them though. It was the 18" range and 30 shots at S5 that he loved. Doesn't the scorch bugs stratagem give them D2 as well? 

Can't say I'm convinced but it's always handy to have them for Devourer's with Brainleech worms. 

If I get my other Hive Tyrant or more Carnifex then they will come into their own.

And closer...

And closer...!

And the Acid Spray.

And closer...

And closer...!

Or left,

and right,

and right again!

Alongside the Tervigon I have with its extended Acid Spray so I can also use it as a Tfex. They make a nice pair, subtly different with the colouration of the red fleshy bits. Vermillion on the Tfex, Khorne Red/maroon on the Tervigon.

Can't wait to see all my big bugs on the table together. As I finish of some of these 'nids I plan to take a full army pic at some point. I think I missed the good light of the summer, maybe next year. In which case I need to finish my Void Shield Generator for it! White pics on Friday

And so I gets me my Great Big Granite Stamp of Approval - TO DONE!'

'nids part 294 - Tyrannofex #Dreadtober week4

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer. You may have noticed that my #DreadTober posts had evaporated. Unfortunately I had run out of my Army Painter Anti-Shine varnish and had decided to try a new product - AK Interactive 3rd generation matt varnish.

 

It had some good reviews and came in a 100ml bottle, something Army Painter have told me they have no immediate plans of doing with Anti-shine :(

The Matt Varnish arrived five days after it should have done and as you can see the results are suspect. The flat areas are really flat matt but as you can see the crevices have that white frosted effect where it's pooled.

I wasn't happy at all, but thankfully it was easily rectified in most instances. The creases had a dab of Strong Tone wash and it hid the offending white foam. However, what the pictures can't convey is that the finish has a rubbery texture, akin to those soft-grip pens.

It's not wholly unpleasant but as I'd also applied some to my Genestealer Acolyte Iconward and it had started to separate and peel off like a thin film of rubber I had sever doubts about it's durability.

 

So I was not best pleased and the whole project pretty much ground to a halt as I tried to decide on the next course of action.

Which was to order three of these. I've also picked up some other varnishes and may consider doing a test in future to find the best paint on matt varnish [spoiler alert - AK Interactive aren't winning any prizes].

One last issue I noticed was the varnish 'foam' that dried on this leg plate will need fixing - paint back in the dark blue and all the striations.

 

I wouldn't have minded in a way if that was the level of frosting, that can be mitigated with checking to see if it has pooled but it is a faff and the fact it peeled off means I doubt I'll have any use for it at the moment. Anyway, I'm going to Anti-Shine the lot and get my TO DONE! pics, just a few weeks late.

'nids part 293 - Tyrannofex #Dreadtober week3 pt 2

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranid Tyrannofex for #DreadTober week 3. I'm a little behind on my posting schedule, apologies. I've obviously progressed significantly since these pics. In fact I am almost complete. Unfortunately I ran out of varnish, had some on order, it was supposed to arrive on Thursday but is still out for delivery :(

But I had made an effort to add some highlights to the red on the Rupture Cannon.

Which allowed me to create a fleshy texture on the feeder tubes that make it look potentially semi-transparent.

However, it made the pure vermilion highlights on the rest of the model a little incongruous. I've since added a little more highlights to them, not up to the white I used in places on the guns but just enough to match.

The fact is there is different fleshy red materials and different levels of specularity to them, that's OK. The problem is your mind tellign you they are the same material and therefore they should be highlighted to the same process. 

But I made one concession to additional highlights, I don't need it distract any further from the big gun at the front. The Acid Spray needs to be varnished, Tamiya Clear Red X-27 the inner barrels before I can then add the acid green highlights [a process I failed to record the last time I did it].

And I spent an evening doing the green glow FX.

I had thought about the red glow but went with green in the end.

Still might need some additional lime painted in for the glow to be more effective but I was quite pleased how well it went otherwise.

Here it is opposite the 'Great Maw'. As you can see that extra lime green will help the top of those vents match up better. Some subtle difference between the two and different colourations. But, not everything has to match, it would be amazing if they did but these aren't one continuous sitting in a painting commission, it's a decade of painting and they're different creatures anyway so can have different tones.

The glow FX worked out really, well, although the lower 5 spotted element isn't as good as the 3 bulbs at the top.

I also added some red around the Stinger Salvo, so it looked like they were being expelled from raw flesh inside.

And some minor green glows on the inside help break up the red.

So from incredibly worried I wouldn't finish to almost done. Then I didn't get the varnish and effectively missed the deadline. I'll have another update this week hopefully, or TO DONE! pics maybe next week. Pleased with the results though.

'nids part 293 - Tyrannofex #Dreadtober week3

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranid Tyrannofex for #DreadTober week 3. I'm not entirely sure how I'm doing this, maybe it's the deadline but I'm pushing on through with this beast.

All the highlights on the bone and turquoise are all complete. 

I've been in and tidied up all the reds with Khorne Red.

Crisp striations on all the bone. Yes it's quite odd that I've gone all in on fibrous look of the bone compared to my original Tyranids 10 years ago.

That said the smaller creatures remain simply highlighted on the bone, as there's not enough room for all the lines.

Rupture Cannon is also ready.

And moving on I did the Adrenal Glands.

I'd debated with myself about adding some red shading around where the symbiote is attached to the Tfex.

But I should have known that it would look significantly better with that transition, as if the gland was pumping adrenaline into the surrounding area.

I would describe this as a triumph. It totally lifted it to another level. Not necessarily in my skills, just in the overall finish of the model.

I was pretty confident in that I could do it, I'd just questioned whether I should for the piece.

 

I mixed some red wash with Khorne Red to get the deep colour. Ordinarily it's too milky and I needed something between my Tamiya ClearRed X-27 and thinned Vermilion craft acrylic.

It then prompted me to consider the colour of the vent glow. My first Tervigon is without glow. I hadn't introduced it into the palette, apart from its tongue.

The second one was the lime green.

I was considering at this point to do it it red [to white] just for something different. But I know how difficult the red glow can be [my Ravenwing headlamps are sketchy]. I asked a couple of hobby luminaries [Greg and Marcelis] who both agreed to go with green, so that's what I'm doing.

That may prompt me to go back and do the green glow on my first Tervigon eventually, we'll see. For now, here's my progress diary, this was pretty much up-to-date. I think the next Monday session has the Adrenals. I was still panicking at this stage whether I could get it done in time...